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Continuing clutch problems

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H

hama61

Jedi Hopeful
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Like written in a previous post the bn 4 had been sitting for three years. All the rubber parts in the brake / master and slave cylinder changed. With all the advice we managed after facing a lot of difficulties we faced we finally have clutch pressure but:

1 when you release the clutch pedal it has to be done with (more) force. It doesn't go as easy as i can remember it and when i compare it to the family car. you need much more force. Is this probably due to the new fluid ?

2 At the moment the car is jacked up ( see attachement) but when testing the clutch no matter, if the car is in neutral or in a gear you can turn the wheels by hand. Could it be, that the clutch is frozen as well and how to solve this problem ?

Harry
 

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#1 is saying you either have an internal hangup in the hydraulic circuit or the operating levers of your pressure plate are hanging up.

I would remove the seats and both tunnels to observe the operation of the clutch bell housing lever. Then you should be able to see whether it travels fully and determine whether the hangup is in the slave cylinder or the pressure plate operating levers.

I haven't tried this but you might be able to remove the connecting pin between the slave pushrod and bell housing lever. In that case, do the wheels still rotate in gear? If so you need to remove the trans and renew the pressure plate or at least free it up. If with the pin out you see the bell housing lever move further forward and the wheels don't rotate, then you know you have a hangup in the slave or master cylinder.
 
When you say you can turn the wheels, is the other side turning as well while you are turning it. That is normal if it does. If you could block the opposite side wheel from turning and then try it, then it should not turn when in gear.
 
UPDATE

The car is on its wheels again and noticed there is compression when you try to push the car in gear. When you pull in the clutch the situation and put the car in gear the situation is exactly the same ( compression in gear)
 
It's likely the friction plate is stuck to the flywheel. The extra pressure you feel is the clutch diaphragm springs working hard to to unsuccessfully release and the reason you feel compression when pushing with the cluth released is because it's not releasing! It's possible it will free off if you can bump start the car and attempt to drive up an incline with the clutch pedal pushed down whilst trying repeatedly to accelerate. ?
 
I agree that the clutch is probably stuck to the flywheel. When I bought my Healey about 20 years ago it had been sitting in a basement storage for about 15 years. After towing it home I rebuilt all the hydralic components, (clutch & brakes) then tried to drive it. the clutch face was stuck to the flywheel. On about 3 week-ends I would push it out to the street, face it in a clear location put it in gear hold my foot down on the clutch pedal and start it. The engine would fire up and the car would take off because the clutch was stuck to the flywheel. Then I would stomp on the gas pedal to try to force clutch surface to break free of the flywheel. After 3 or 4 week-ends of trying this, I told my wife one Saturday morning that if it didn't break free that day I was going to pull the trans. That morning on the 1st attempt it broke free and has been working perfectly ever since. That was almost 20 years ago. Even during restoration a few years back I did not change the clutch plate.
 
This is how I break the clutch friction plate from the fly wheel.
I make sure the rear brakes work and the hand brake is balanced when applied, locking both wheels equally.

I jack the car up at the rear, remove the wheels, then with the engine in 4th gear I start it.
I let it run until everything is warmed up, just doing this sometimes works.

If it doesn't, I then apply the brakes with the engine in gear, and the clutch depressed, with a little more gas, which slows down the engine but not enough to stall it.
Do this several times and it will put enough pressure on the clutch disc it will break loose.

Always works. No driving up and down the street, risking life and limb, scaring the neighbours.
Johnb
 
Today we have made a new attempt to free the clutch by towing the car. In 4 th and 3 rd gear. You can pull it through the gears but the clutch is still not free so it seems, that this isn’t up to now the way to success.

Initially the clutch pedal was not working ( most likely due to air pockets) when we had the air finally out we had a decent clutch pedal but the clutch was still not working.

When using the clutch pedal the pushrod in the slave cylinder engages 13 mm ( 13, millimeter, = 0.511811 inch ) is this play enough

What can all still be wrong ?

Harry
 
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